A09436:13
A grain of mustard-seed or, the least measure of grace that is or can…A graine of musterd-seede or, the least measure of grace that is or can…
A grain of mustard-seed or, the least measure of grace that is or can be effectual to salvation. Corrected and amended by W. Perkins.A graine of musterd-seede or, the least measure of grace that is or can be effectuall to saluation. Corrected and amended by W. Perkins.
London: printed by John Legate, 1611London: printed by Iohn Legate, 1611
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The Exposition.
IN a man there must be considered three things, the substance of the body and soul, whereof man is said to consist; the faculties placed in the soul and exercised in the body, as understanding, will, affections: the integrity ⟨p. 4⟩tegritie and purity of the faculties, whereby they are conformable to the will of God and bear his Image. And since the fall of Adam, man is not deprived of his substance or of the powers and faculties of his soul, but only of the third, which is the purity, or integrity of nature. And therefore the conversion of a sinner, whereof the conclusion speaketh, is not the change of the substance of man, or of the faculties of the soul: but a renewing and restoring of that purity and holiness which was lost by mans fall, with the abolishment of that natural corruption that is in all the powers of the soul. This is the work of God, and of God ⟨p. 5⟩alone, and that on this manner. First of all, when it pleaseth God to work a change in any, he doth it not first in one part, then afterward in another, as he that repairs a decayed house by piecemeal: but the work, both for the beginning, continuance, and accomplishment, is in the whole man, and every part at once, specially in the mind, conscience, will, and affections: as on the contrary, when Adam lost the image of God, he lost it in every part. Secondly, the conversion of a sinner is not wrought all at one instant, but in continuance of time: & that by certain measures and degrees. And a man is then in the first degree of his conversion ⟨p. 6⟩when the holy Ghost by the means of the word, inspires him with some spiritual motions, & begins to regenerate and renew the inward powers of his soul. And he may in this case very fitly be compared to the night in the first dawning of the day, in which though the darkness remain and be more in quantity then the light, yet the sun hath already cast some beams of light into the air, whereupon we term it the breaking of the day. Now then, the very point which I teach, is that a man at this instant, and in this very state (God as yet having but laid certain beginnings of true conversion in his heart) is the very child of God, and that not